Hip-hop, like any art form, is a means of creative expression. And while rap music is often semi-autobiographical, when Kanye West recorded in 2018, “I thought about killing you / Premeditated murder, ...

Rap is a lyrical expression of social, cultural, and political issues in present society. Unsurprisingly, rap music is the most popular genre of music and features predominantly Black artists ...

This year marks 50 years since hip-hop began, and today, one element of the genre seems to be on trial. In recent years, many rappers — both mainstream artists and those in their mixtape era — are ...

Opening statements for the trial of Young Thug and Young Stoner Life Records (YSL) began on Nov. 27, over a year and a half after Young Thug’s May 2022 Georgia indictment. The prosecution alleges that ...

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Decriminalizing Artistic Expression Act into law on Friday. The bill will limit the use of lyrics as evidence in legal proceedings. Advocates of the bill say using lyrics ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about the business and law of music. Two men were convicted in federal court on Tuesday in Brooklyn of murdering Jason ...

No one believes that country music legend Johnny Cash shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die. When Cash in 1968 released “Folsom Prison Blues,” a ballad about shooting and killing a man for no ...

The racial bias of courts using rap lyrics to criminalize artists of color. California is the first state to prevent courts from criminalizing Black and Brown artistic expression, after passing ...

Prosecutors' use of rap lyrics at trial has come under scrutiny. A California judge vacated the murder convictions of two Black men on Monday after ruling that prosecutors "more likely than not" ...

Since its early days, rap lyrics have been used by prosecutors to build narratives with criminal trials. With the genre's popularity booming, this trend continues to affect aspiring artists and A-list ...

The trial of Grammy Award-winning rapper Young Thug, real name Jeffery Lamar Williams, began on Monday in Atlanta, Ga. The trial is expected to take months and will be pivotal in shaping how the ...

"This blatantly racist decision is a travesty," writes veteran attorney Dina LaPolt. In a judicial opinion filed last month, The State of Maryland’s highest court ruled that rap lyrics may be admitted ...